DANCE / EILEEN SONDAK : 2 Dance Scouts to Be With S.D. Arts Group in Russia

Dance has been the stepsister of the arts in San Diego for years. But things are changing. When Mayor Maureen O’Connor leads a delegation of cultural bridge-builders to the Soviet Union on June 25 to scout the arts for a proposed festival in San Diego, the dance community will be well represented. In fact, dance will be doubly represented.

Joining powerhouses from the theater, visual arts, the symphony and the opera will be two leading doyennes from the dance world: Diane Annala of the San Diego Foundation for the Performing Arts and Maxine Mahon of the California Ballet.

Since dance is Russia’s major cultural export, it makes sense to keep it in the foreground on this fact-finding trip, but, as Mahon said in a recent interview, “There are a lot of art forms the public is not aware of, not just dance, because we just don’t know enough about what’s happening there.”

“All of us in the party are going to be keeping an open mind about what we see,” she said, “so nothing slips through the cracks. We’re not just going to pay attention to our own specialties.”

What do these scouts hope to accomplish on this historic mission?

“I don’t personally feel the need to see the Bolshoi to determine whether they should be part of this festival. I could get a list of the top companies,” Mahon said. “But I know how hard it is to deal with bureaucracy. I need time to negotiate with the powers that be.

“That’s what’s so important about a fact-finding trip. You can’t do that with letters, and you can’t just say, ‘I like that, so I’ll take it.’ There’s a lot of give and take, and negotiating is too nebulous to do on a long-distance basis.”

Annala has high hopes of charting new territory on this 2 1/2-week sojourn in the Soviet Union.

“They have such a rich cultural heritage, but because of the political climate we don’t know about them. I’m looking for the regional companies that move into the big theaters in the summer when the Kirov and the Bolshoi are touring.

“You just can’t make those contacts without meeting them and gaining their trust. And I would not book anything until I’ve actually seen it and decided it was right for our audiences. I don’t even do that with American companies.”

Annala said she’s looking for folk dance, but she expects to find some surprises, too.

“I understand there’s a wealth of jazz and even rock ‘n’ roll patterned after the Beatles, but with their own variations.”

Annala sees another fringe benefit--one closer to home--emerging from this ground-breaking pilgrimage.

“If nothing else happened, it would be wonderful that we’ve eliminated some major stumbling blocks to an arts festival,” she said. “First, we have leadership from the mayor’s office, and then we have representatives from five of the major organizations in town talking to each other and working together.”

You might not expect to see authentic old-world folk dancing at Lawrence Welk Village. But that’s exactly what’s on tap for Friday from noon to 3 p.m.

The Skoenborg Folkdancers from Medelpad, Sweden, will perform their own brand of village dances, dating back to the 15th Century. The costumed dancers will be accompanied by fiddlers, making merry with traditional folk music from central Sweden.

The alfresco performance, to be held on the patio adjacent to the theater, is free to the public. An old-fashioned barbecue will be available (for a fee) for hungry dance watchers.

What brings this unique event to Welk’s doorstep?

“It was just a chance opportunity,” said theater spokeswoman Sam Staley. “The troupe is touring several states, and we were able to get them here.”

There are no plans afoot for further forays into dance, but as Staley said, “If these opportunities present themselves, we’re always willing to consider them.”

In the best of all possible worlds, local arts organizations would team up to support each other’s efforts. Dance concerts would all have full orchestral accompaniment. And, where appropriate, trained actors, singers, dancers and choral groups would perform as an integrated unit.

Unfortunately, such interdisciplinary cooperation is rarely achieved. But for the International Ballet of United States International University’s spring concert at the East County Performing Arts Center last week, the university demonstrated the possibilities when an arts community pools its resources.

Sure, the dancers were just students, not polished professionals, and the performance was not without flaws. But the company was well rehearsed and obviously well trained in matters of style as well as basic technique. And the dancers had the full support of USIU’s International Orchestra, under Zoltan Rozsnyai’s able direction. And the fledgling musicians gave a good account of themselves in this context.

Along with “Dream,” the program contained a handsome staging of “Raymonda Variations,” choreographed for the dancers by Elizabeth Wistrich, and a cleverly comic if a bit unfocused jazz-based dance designed by one of the graduate students, James Kelly.

The lavish costumes were fully professional and strikingly apt. All in all, the two-performance concert was an impressive step in the right direction.